Singapore
students will not be affected by the upcoming changes to Britain's
GCSE and A-level exams.
The Singapore
Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) gave the assurance in
response to reports of controversial changes to Britain's GCSE and
A-level exams taken by 16- and 18-year-olds respectively.
Under the
British reforms, grades for subjects will be progressively switched
- from A* to G currently - to a new system which uses grades nine
to one by 2020.
There are nine
grades under the new system, compared with eight under the old
one.
Exams for some
subjects have also been made more rigorous, such as by including
more maths content in science subjects.
Observers in
Britain say that introducing more grades is a bid to increase
differentiation between students, and reduce grade inflation.
But some
students fear the tougher exams and differentiated grades will pull
down their overall grades and affect their chances of getting into
universities.
Responding to
queries from The Straits Times, a spokesman for the Universities
and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) in Britain gave the
assurance that Singaporeans applying to study in British
universities will not be affected by the reforms.
She said that
while universities will have reviewed the entry criteria for the
reformed A levels and GCSEs in Britain, they will retain the
existing entry criteria for qualifications which have not been
reformed.
"They are keen
to encourage applicants, including overseas applicants, and are
aware of all the variations in A-level qualifications...
Singaporean applicants will not be affected and will still be very
welcome," said the Ucas spokesman.
The number of
Singaporean undergraduates accepting places in British universities
has been on the rise over the years. About 1,600 Singaporean
students took up places in British universities last year, compared
with 730 in 2007.
SEAB said that
Singapore's GCE A-level and O-level examinations had been delinked
from the UK ones since 2002 and 2006 respectively, when the
Ministry of Education (MOE) took over the management of the
national examinations.
"As the
Singapore-Cambridge GCE examinations are based on a different
curriculum compared to the UK/international GCE examinations, it
would not be meaningful to make comparisons between the grading
systems of the two examinations," said an SEAB spokesman.
She said there
are no plans to align the Singapore-Cambridge GCE examinations
grading system with that of the UK system.
While the SEAB
engages the University of Cambridge International Examinations
(CIE) to set and mark the papers, the standards and award of grades
for the subjects are determined by SEAB and MOE in consultation
with CIE.
Subjects such
as mother tongue languages are set, marked and graded locally.
SEAB said it
will continue to work with MOE and CIE to ensure that its
Singapore-Cambridge GCE qualifications continue to be recognised by
institutions of higher learning both at home and abroad.